NERF brings advanced blaster technology to precision shooting, tag games and target practice. Customise your blaster with NERF Modulus, maximise your range with NERF N-Strike Elite or start a micro battle with collectible NERF MicroShots. Nobody wants to spend more time fiddling around with their toy gun than playing with it, so we assessed how straightforward each toy was to handle, fire, and reload, and we considered how convenient its capacity was. Fun factor This gun looks cool. Being a major Arnold Schwarzenegger fan growing up, I'll take any excuse to reenact a Terminator 2 scene with this mini gun, some shades and one of the worst Austrian accents to date. Launch into epic battles with NERF Blasters! Choose your blaster and get ready to fire with Nerf’s aerodynamic foam darts.

The NERF DinoSquad Armorstrike Dart Blaster features an awesome dinosaur design, that looks like an Ankylosaurus dinosaur. Launch eight darts in a row from the blaster's eight-dart rotating drum to show your targets that you have plenty of dino-power!Our main issue with this blaster is in the performance. While we can forgive the extra weight and firing complexity, as this is aimed at 8+ year olds, we can’t overlook the constant jamming of the firing mechanism. Pretty much every time we load the blaster, at least one of the foam bullets jam, which either means popping the clip fully and digging around inside the chamber with your fingers, or trying to force it through the motorized mechanism for a weaker shot. Neither is much fun. Don't aim for the head – even if you're wearing protection over your eyes, it can still be quite uncomfortable to get hit by a foam dart around sensitive spots such as your ears or mouth, and your opponents won't thank you for it. Aiming for the torso is the best way to avoid spoiling play, and gives you the best chance of landing a hit. With this much fire-power, it should be obvious but it bears stating outright: This gun is not for kids, and is recommended for ages 14 and up. If you qualify, I can tell you, this gun is super-satisfying to shoot. Because of its outstanding test scores, we disqualified this gun from use in our final Capture the Flag battle, because, you know, we didn't want to actually murder someone. OK. I will try to make this as short as reasonably possible. The TL;DR here is that the Dart Zone Pro-Series MK-3 Motorized Flywheel Pro Dart Blaster (whew!) beat the rest of these guns like Mike Tyson versus your 8-year-old nephew.

Partially due to this being a motorized unit, the velocity on the Pro Series MK-3 was more than quadruple the second-place contender. That massive velocity number naturally translates into greater distance on the course. We saw about a 30% increase in distance between this unit and the runner-up. The accuracy and consistency was just as impressive. With a score of 2.5 (lower is better), the half-size darts on the MK-3 are impressively consistent. The second place score was 3.4, with last place being 8.6. We put up a target and used each toy gun to fire several rounds of foam darts, judging them on how firmly the darts hit the target, and how easily we were able to hit the same spot consistently. Ease of use The problem is caused by an imperfect interaction between the clip and the trigger. We noticed that our clip didn’t hold the bullets particularly well, and they would frequently pop out of the top – yes, even when the clip isn’t over-filled. So, when you insert it into the main blaster, the bullets likely pop up too early, and don’t align properly with the trigger. The end result? Jams. So many jams. When it does perform, it’s powerful and satisfying – exactly how a Nerf rifle should behave. It’s heavy, noisy, and more complex to use, which aren’t deal-breakers in themselves, but they all add to the frustration of constant jams and reloads. Other Nerf guns you can considerNERF Rival blasters make a great choice for team games, letting you choose your side: red or blue. Start a head-to-head competition fuelled by NERF Rival’s power and precision. And for fans of the Fortnite gaming world, there’s a whole range of NERF Fortnite blasters to take your Fortnite battles from the screen to the playing field. With the Zuru X-Shot Excel Crusher, I can't really make any of the same complaints I've made above about insufficient dart quantity. This thing has an auto-rotating ammo belt with a 35-dart capacity. I wasn't initially very excited about this gun's performance. It tested in the lower half of average velocity speeds and that made for poor performance in the distance tests. It did, however, place third overall in our accuracy and consistency tests. Team up with legendary dinosaurs as a member of the elite DinoSquad! Harness the incredible force of the greatest dinosaurs of all and blast into amazing adventures. Charge into the action with the Nerf DinoSquad Armorstrike blaster! Don't shoot at point blank range – foam darts are soft, but if you get hit by them at very close range they might sting a little. The darts won't have any chance to slow down in the air, so at that range they'll be hitting you as hard as they can. I had several other categories planned for this list: Best Multi-shot Rifle, Best Motorized, Most Carnage, Best Accuracy, Longest Distance, etc. But the MK-3 took them all. So I summed it up with a Best Overall title, and now I'm here to sing its praises before moving on with my life.

Team up with legendary dinosaurs as a member of the elite DinoSquad! Harness the extraordinary force of the greatest dinosaurs of all and blast into amazing adventures!WARNING: Do not aim at eyes or face. Use of eyewear recommended for players and people within range. Use only official Nerf darts. Other darts may not meet safety standards. Do not modify darts or blaster. Be mindful of your surroundings – in the chaos of a Nerf vs X Shot battle, it's all too easy to lose sight of trip hazards and other dangers. Be mindful of what's around you during play, and take care to remove as many hazards as possible before you start. To be fair, this gun did cost a bit more, and has the phrase "Pro-Series" in its title. However, we've all been fooled by similar monikers before, so I thought it deserved to be put to the test. It does have an optional full-auto firing mode and comes with both full- and half-size sport darts.